Figure 1.--This card is a double image. The boy in one image is wearing his Sunday best outfit--presumably his first pair of pants. It is a classic Little Lord Fauntleroy suit with an unsusal bow and leggings. He also has ringlets and curled bangs. He is wearing gloves and holds a whip behind him. A sailor style cap with an anchor insignia completes his outfit. Great detail in the lace work on his cuffs and collar can be seen. In the other image he is posed with his older sister. In this one he has the same hairdo but is wearing a skirted sailor outfit. Both photographs are from the same sitting. This could be the occasion of his breaching, but may be just two fashionable outfits that he wore. Clearly he had not outgrown his sailor outfit. Notice that it is Christmas and not his birthday. The card reads: "Naramore, King St, Alexandria, VA". The back is plain. Handwritten in ink in old script is "Xmas 1895". Click on the image to see both images and a fuller discussion. Image courtesy of the RG collecation.

HBC at first assumed that portraits of boys in skirted outfits and pants mean that the boy had just been breached. This may in fact be the case in many instances, but there are several other alternative possibilities. One of the questions HBC has is if many boys might for a while wear pants and skirts and what the convetions were for deciding what a boy would wear.

The First Pair of Pants

One of the poorly understood aspects of breeching was precisely what was done. Did the mother suddenly put away all a boy's dresses and buy boys' clothes. Or did she purchase a boy's party suit or boy's play clothes first and only gradually put away the dresses. Which was more likely to be the first pair of pants, for a dressy party suit or for play clothes. Perhaps for a short period a boy's party outfit continued to be a dress and he wore boys' clothe s for play. Little is known about the process. Probably the answer is all of the above, depending on the predelections of the mother.

Mixed Outfits

Some boys may have for a while wore a mixture of clothes before a complete set of new clothes were acquired. I have no personal accounts on such experiences. Some availavle images, however, do show boys in a mixture of clothes, shhowing ghat such experiences did take place. Usually the combinatiob is trousers or knee pants with a girlish looking top or blouse. Long trousers were more common at the mid-19th Century while kneepants more common in the late 19th Century. Boys wearing such mixed outfits may or may not have had their curls cut. Different mothers had varying attitudes on this.

Thrift

Thrift probably also affected the breeching process and the boys' new clothes beause some mothers may have wanted to get the good out of a boy's dresses before putting them away. The availability of dresses from older sisters was another factor affecting the age of breeching. Queen Victoria herself is known, for example, to have used the clothes from the older princes and princesses for the younger children In relative terms, clothes were much more expensive than is the case today.

Activities

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web dress pages:
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Created: December 17, 2002
Last updated: 11:14 PM 6/3/2006